1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,360 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Volga bomb here with a classic 3 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:13,240 Speaker 1: episode from the archives. This one delves into the fascinating 4 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: finding that the human faces temperature tends to change based 5 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: on factors like stress level and concentration, and then how 6 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:26,799 Speaker 1: technology might harness this data to make some jobs safer, 7 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:32,480 Speaker 1: and whether that's a slippery slope. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren 8 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:35,560 Speaker 1: Vogle bomb here. If you're anything like me, in moments 9 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,480 Speaker 1: of embarrassment, your face may flush and suddenly feel warm, 10 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: But during times of intense concentration, the opposite is true. 11 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: You're more likely to keep a cool head, or rather 12 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:49,239 Speaker 1: a cool face. According to new research, a study that 13 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: evaluated facial thermal temperatures revealed that as a person engages 14 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: in intense mental tasks, their face and in particular the 15 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: area around the nose, becomes cooler. The study, done by 16 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: researchers at the University of Nottingham's Institute for Airspace Technology 17 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,840 Speaker 1: and published Indie journal Human Factors, paves the way towards 18 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: applying thermal cameras in the workplace as a tool to 19 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: assess how focused or possibly overwhelmed a worker might be, 20 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: which would be a little much for many work environments, 21 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: but could help prevent dangerous situations where people's safety depends 22 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 1: on a worker's concentration. One arena where a frazzled worker 23 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: could become a deadly serious concern is in the cockpit. 24 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,520 Speaker 1: Passenger air traffic has doubled every fifteen years since the 25 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties and is expected to double again by four 26 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:41,320 Speaker 1: according to an Airbus Global Market forecast. The forecast predicts 27 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: that pilots may be operating in increasingly congested skies and 28 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: more often without copilots. If air traffic controllers and others 29 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: on the ground can detect through thermal facial imaging when 30 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: a pilot is in a moment of intense concentration, they 31 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 1: can offer to help, perhaps through remote control mechanisms, or 32 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: at least not further distract the philot with unnecessary communications. 33 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: To evaluate how temperatures within a person's face change during 34 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: periods of concentration, the researchers assembled fourteen students and faculty 35 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: members at their university and had them complete computer based 36 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: tasks of increasing difficulty. As the subjects completed each challenge, 37 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:20,680 Speaker 1: their breathing and pulse rates were recorded, and a thermal 38 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 1: camera took detailed readings of temperature from previously mapped locations 39 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,239 Speaker 1: on their faces. The researchers found that the link between 40 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:30,799 Speaker 1: the difficulty of each task and the coolness of the 41 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 1: subject's facial temperatures was striking. Co author Alistair Campbell Ritchie 42 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,280 Speaker 1: of the University of Nottingham's Bioengineering Research Group set in 43 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: a press release, we expected that mental demands on an 44 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:46,280 Speaker 1: operator would result in physiological changes, but the direct correlation 45 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 1: between the workload and the skin temperature was very impressive 46 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: and counterintuitive. We were not expecting to see the face 47 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: getting colder. The results were later replicated among a sample 48 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: of pilots as they operated flights on simulated helicopters. We 49 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: spoke with Sarah Sharple's, professor of human factors at the 50 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: University of Nottingham and co author of the study. She 51 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:09,239 Speaker 1: said there are a couple of possible explanations for why 52 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:13,080 Speaker 1: the nose area in particular becomes cooler with increased concentration. 53 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: One is that breathing rate tends to increase as a 54 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: person's mental workload increases, and more air traveling through the 55 00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 1: nose would decrease its temperature. The other is that during 56 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:26,919 Speaker 1: periods of high mental workload, blood diverges to the prefrontal 57 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: cortex of the brain. That could mean, Sharples says, that 58 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:32,440 Speaker 1: more blood is flowing away from the nose and towards 59 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:36,040 Speaker 1: the brain. It could also be a combination of these factors. 60 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: Sharples added, however, that there were a few exceptions to 61 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: the cool nose phenomenon. For that reason, she says, we 62 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: would recommend, if this were to be used in a 63 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: real world context, that there be some baseline testing to 64 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: understand how close the relationship is in each individual between 65 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: facial temperature and workload. We also spoke with Archangelo Merla, 66 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,560 Speaker 1: director of the Infrared Imaging Lab at the Institute for 67 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: Advanced Biomedical technolog G at Italy's University of Kiati Pascuera, 68 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,560 Speaker 1: who agrees that baseline testing is critical when interpreting changes 69 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: in people's facial temperatures. Marla's research has shown that facial 70 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: temperatures can reveal a range of conditions, from whether or 71 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: not a person is lying, to feelings of fear or 72 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: stirrings of lust. Marla has also found that the temperature 73 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,880 Speaker 1: of the nose often offers a key signal he said, 74 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,240 Speaker 1: reading nose temperature is an effective physiological tool as an 75 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,359 Speaker 1: indicator of a transition state, but the best approach is 76 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,599 Speaker 1: to take into account changes in temperature across the entire face. 77 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: Apart from pilots, Sharples and visions that thermal cameras could 78 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: play a role in assessing workload and other settings, including 79 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:43,160 Speaker 1: in factories where workers interact with large machinery. But if 80 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: the idea of your boss keeping tabs on you via 81 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,320 Speaker 1: a thermal camera feels intrusively, big brethery, you're not alone. 82 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: Sharple's asks, for example, who would own a worker's thermal data, 83 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: the worker or the employer. She said, You can imagine 84 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: a situation where thermal imaging data intended for real time 85 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,280 Speaker 1: monitoring could be stored and then presented during an end 86 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:06,160 Speaker 1: of your performance report. It's my feeling that these kinds 87 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:08,919 Speaker 1: of technologies will increase in the workplace, so we have 88 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:11,920 Speaker 1: to make absolutely sure we deal with all the ethical, legal, 89 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: and social implications. Today's episode is based on the article 90 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,680 Speaker 1: Concentration makes the Face Grow Cooler on how Stuff works 91 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: dot com, written by Amanda Onion. Brain Stuff is production 92 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:30,839 Speaker 1: of My Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works 93 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 1: dot com and it is produced by Tyler Klang. Four 94 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:35,840 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio visit the i heart 95 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,560 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 96 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:39,280 Speaker 1: favorite shows.